Risk assessment of mercury and methyl mercury intake via sardine and swordfish consumption in Algeria

Overview

This study measured total mercury and methylmercury in sardine and swordfish from three Algerian coastal areas and estimated dietary exposure for adult consumers.

Key numbers

Source units are mg/kg wet weight unless otherwise stated.

• Sample size: sardine n=43 and swordfish n=44, total n=87.
• Sardine: total Hg 0.04 +/- 0.03; MeHg 0.04 +/- 0.02.
• Swordfish: total Hg 0.61 +/- 0.47; MeHg 0.57 +/- 0.45.
• Highest regional swordfish values reported in text: North Centre/Algiers total Hg 0.77 +/- 0.41 and MeHg 0.64 +/- 0.38.
• EDI for swordfish: total Hg 0.098 ug/kg bw/day; MeHg 0.092 ug/kg bw/day.
• EWI for swordfish: total Hg 0.7 ug/kg bw/week; MeHg 0.64 ug/kg bw/week.

Methods

Total Hg was determined on a direct mercury analyzer (AMA-254) without prior chemical digestion; samples thermally degraded at 750 degC with the amalgamator heated to 900 degC and Hg measured at 254 nm. Reported LOD/LOQ for total Hg were 0.005 and 0.010 mg/kg w.w. MeHg was extracted with hydrobromic acid and toluene, back-extracted into L-cysteine, and quantified on the same AMA-254 instrument; reported LOD/LOQ for MeHg were 0.010 and 0.020 mg/kg w.w. Quality control used reference materials ERM-CE278k lyophilized mussels and a Fapas canned-fish RM for total Hg, and TORT-2 lyophilized fish for MeHg.

Implications

This source supports Algerian swordfish and sardine mercury occurrence with explicit total-Hg and MeHg speciation. The authors compare values against 0.5 mg/kg for sardine and 1 mg/kg for swordfish.

Wiki pages this source may touch

• Swordfish
• Fish
• Seafood
• Fresh Fish
• Fish — marine, predatory (tuna, swordfish, shark, king mackerel)
• Fish — marine, non-predatory (sardines, anchovies, salmon, cod)
• Mercury, Total
• Methylmercury

Verification notes

• Source identity checked against DOI 10.12681/jhvms.21792 and the downloaded PDF.
• Total mercury and methylmercury values are separate species and should remain separate during routing.
• No ingredients/sardine slug exists in the current taxonomy; Sardina pilchardus occurrence is routed via the generic ingredients/fish.
• Xiphias gladius is an apex marine predator; Sardina pilchardus is a small pelagic forage fish. The two-species products: split routes occurrence values to the correct trophic-level aggregations.

Update history

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